Acquisition of Shaq Will Tarnish LeBron's Legacy

While most NBA fans have been looking forward to the summer of 2010, the truth of the matter is that the summer of 2009 has provided for some entertaining change as well. We have seen the apparent free agent swap of Ron Artest and Trevor Ariza, the departure of Hedo Turkoglu from Orlando, the speculated arrival of Rasheed Wallace in Beantown, and, of course, the recent acquisition of Shaquille O'Neal by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Shaq's arrival in Cleveland has not only raised the question of whether or not he can elevate the Cavs to the title, but also how Cleveland's newest addition will affect the legacy of LeBron James.

It's no surprise that the Cavs went after Shaq. After all, Dwight Howard ate the Cavaliers alive in the playoffs and although the former "Big Cactus" does not defend against the pick and roll well, his offensive power should wear down Howard and help prevent the raining NBA Defensive Player of the Year from single-handedly shutting down the Cavs' offense. In addition to Cleveland's need for a center, LeBron James, who first met Shaq at one of his own high school basketball games, adamantly pushed Danny Ferry to make this deal happen.

Shaq brings several things to the Cavs. For one, he brings a strong inside presence and the opportunity for the Cavaliers to play a great inside out game. He brings a large body to clog up the middle and keep other teams from getting easy points in the paint. Shaq will also provide another rebounder to relieve LeBron James of some of his rebounding duties. Shaq will also take some minutes away from Zydrunas Ilgauskas, allowing him to play more effectively as he will be given the relief he needs. Factor in that Cleveland gave up practically nothing for Shaq and you realize that this deal only made the Cavs stronger.

Having realized how much better Shaquille O'Neal makes the Cavs, one has to wonder, how does it affect LeBron James' legacy if the Cavs don't win the title next year? The answer is simple; it hurts it tremendously. Last season, the Cavs acquired Mo Williams to help take away some of James' ball-handling responsibilities while also providing another scorer. At the time of the move, it was heralded as the move that gave LeBron the piece he needed to win a title. After the Magic dismantled the Cavaliers, Williams took a fair amount of blame in the media. The last I checked, truly great players make their teammates better, so if Mo Williams was really good in Milwaukee, but then only okay in Cleveland, LeBron James didn't execute like a great player. Others in the media blamed match up problems for Cleveland's failure to get past the Magic in the playoffs. One might think that the NBA Coach of the Year could have devised some schemes to make up for these match up problems. Instead, his team lost and his job stability was questioned. You have to ask, if the Cavs don't win the title next year, will we blame Mo Williams, Mike Brown, AND Shaquille O'Neal, or will we start to question the greatness of LeBron James?

If the Cavs do, however, win a title, it will only get the first monkey off LeBron's back. The world will still say that he needed Shaq's help to get it. Basically, he will inherit the monkey that Kobe shed this year. Some will try to say that Shaq is to LeBron as Scottie was to Michael, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Having a strong big man creates a dimension on the court that is different from having another strong wing player and the basketball community recognizes that. They recognize that Larry Bird had Robert Parish while Magic Johnson had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and that is why those two great players are not held in quite the regard that Michael Jordan is. Jordan dominated six NBA Finals with players like Bill Wennington and Will Purdue as his inside force. Teams could take a chance double-teaming him on the perimeter without worrying about getting torched on the inside. The other difference between Scottie Pippen and Shaquille O'Neal in these situations is that Jordan helped develop Pippen while Shaq was brought in for LeBron. Scottie also never won without Michael.

Kudos to LeBron James for allowing his number one priority to be bringing an NBA championship to Cleveland. Kudos to LeBron James for demanding that the Cavs find a way to bring in Shaquille O'Neal to help him win a title in Cleveland. One must wonder, however, once King James and the Big Diesel reel in that title, how will LeBron James react to the criticism? He may have to leave town and earn a few titles on his own if he truly wants to be known as one of the best to ever play the game.